Red
by The Robin
Summary: The original story of little red riding hood is much darker and convoluted than any old fairy tale.
1. Chapter 1

Red was a very angry child. All she knew was in these woods. A house that was not a home… a father with only cruelty in his eyes, and a mother who had become dispassionate long ago. Domestic violence was not a normal occurrence during this time, and so her neighbors who had once been within walking distance, moved away from the screaming and fights. It was as if they were afraid it was contagious, the hate disease. Now her family sat in the middle of the woods with no nearby neighbors, save for her aunt Julia who had bright red hair just like Red. Aunt Julia was her only companion as she grew into her adolescence and then on to her teenage years. She was the one who taught Red to sew exquisite clothes and fine embroidery. On her eighteenth birthday, Aunt Julia gave Red a most beautiful bolt of cloth.

"You are to make whatever your heart desires, here are the makings for beads and colored string." Aunt Julia smiled as her niece hugged her, brilliant red hair shining in the sunlight. Then she frowned, a thought suddenly occurring to her. "Darling, listen to me. You must never wear this out in the woods-"

"But why?"

"Because it is a bright color and predators would be able to spot you very quickly. Promise me you will not wear this out into the woods." Red saw how distressed her Aunt had become and made her promise.

For weeks, nights stretched out until dawn when Red worked at her new creation. She sewed orange, yellow, rust, vermillion, and maroon colored beads into the lining. It was like a blazing cape, pure burning fire. She decided it would be a cape she could wear into town when she sold her dresses and other creations.

Red's father started drinking again. His voice was like a bass drum thundering through the house and her mother was a small flute who could not withstand the barrage. When this sound reached her ears Red would go straight to her working table, light a lantern, and bend her head over her work. Red became consumed in her work as her parents fought these daily battles. However, one day something wonderful and also terrible happened. She had finished the beautiful cape. Her father had lost the landlords money.

He came into her room like a storm, ripping through her various fabrics and personal trunks. He searched like a madman yelling all the while, "Where's my money? Where's my money!" Red was terrified and hid in the corner, trying to press her back through the wall. Suddenly he turned upon her and grabbed her by the collar of her dress, lifting her off her feet. "You took it you little thief, where is it!" Red felt her temples found with fear but also with anger. She gathered the anger around her like great wings and yelled up into his face. "You lost it when you were drinking, you old fool!" His eyes blazed like an inferno and he threw her back against the wall, her head banged sharply against it. Red saw stars flash against her eyes. "Get out! GET OUT!" He was yelling. He began to tear the house apart, going from room to room. Red got to her feet, feeling dizzy and sick. She went to her trunk and grabbed her sewing materials, the small box of beads, and the few bolts of cloth that remained. She shoved them into a basket then ran downstairs while her father was busy in another room. She took bread and wine from the cabinet and headed for the door, at the last moment she spotted her beautiful cape hanging on the door. She took it as well and wrapped it around herself. Red fled from her home and never returned again.

Red formulated a plan within her head. She was going to stay with Aunt Julia, she had already told her to come when things got out of hand. "Surely things have gotten out of hand," she said to herself sadly. So preoccupied she was with her own troubles, Red did not think about Aunt Julia's warning about the predators lurking in the woods.

It was getting to be late and Red began to worry about finding a place to sleep for the night. She had just started getting her bolts of cloth out to sew a tent when a band of wagons came bumping along the road. There was curly painted writing on the side of them and when they stopped Red jumped back into the bushes. A man with dark, long, curly hair jumped down from the wagon and came towards her bush.

"It is all right little girl, we will not harm you." He had a strange accent that was rich and accentuated his R's. Red remained hiding, not a fool. A woman with graying hair stepped out from wagon to stand beside him. "Please come out, we travelers must stick together in the dangerous woods." The woman's voice rolled around in her ears like a song, she seemed to have no hidden angst against Red. She came out from the bushes and they smiled at her, revealing shining teeth.

They pulled the wagons off into the woods. There they set up camp with a fire with the wagons circled around it for protection."What is your name, little girl?" The woman asked of her as they sat down before the fire for supper. Red felt she could trust these people so she answered truthfully. "Red." The woman's eyes smiled as her lips curved upwards.

"I can see why," she lifted her black hood away from Red's head, revealing her beautiful hair in the firelight. The fine strands seem to catch the light and hold it inside like some strange fire spirit. The older woman touched her hair and a strange expression came over her face. "You must travel with us through these woods – it is the only safe way." Red sighed, wishing she could agree.

" I am going to my Aunt's house and it is in the opposite direction you are going." The old woman looked stern for a moment, then she nodded her head. "Then you must always keep your head covered, it attracts too much attention." Red agreed and started to cover her head again but the woman stopped her, another strange smile on her lips. "But, before you do, could I have a lock of it?" Red looked at the woman strangely, who leaned close to her and whispered, "I would like to show it to my grandsons and they are in the town we are traveling to. They would not believe me if I simply told them about your hair." Red blushed but agreed. The woman clipped a lock of her hair and slipped it into a small leather pouch at her waist.

The old woman stayed at her side the entire night as they feasted on pheasant and listened to music on the fiddle and drums. Red would have loved to stay with these people, they were so alive and so happy. But she knew she must go on to her Aunt's house. The old woman told her they were traveling gypsies headed to the city to sell their wares. Red showed her the cape she had made and the woman's eyes became very round, she touched the fabric and showed others who had the same reaction.

"You crafted this yourself?"

"Yes. My Aunt sent me the materials, she is the one who taught me to sew."

"Your Aunt must be very talented."

"She is, I love her very much." Red was given many things to take with her on the rest of the trip; food, water, and some hand crafted wooden beads that had been branded by fire with symbols. They told various stories over the firelight but at one point the woman turned back to Red looking very grave.

"You must know something before you leave us. Two weeks ago we came into these woods and one of our own men committed a terrible crime. He took one of the young girls away from the wagons and he…" The old woman could not seem to speak anymore but she ignored Red's offer of water. "The man took advantage of the girl, and he told her if she ever told anyone that he would kill her. The girl returned to camp and though none of us knew what had happened we could see something was wrong. She would not sleep or eat. Her father took her to the gypsy elders and asked them to help her, they questioned her only to find she was no longer speaking. They saw her unwillingness as a sign that her mind had been bent. They gave her a tea to drink that contained some calming herbs, which loosened her tongue. She told them what the man had done. Our justice is swift. The elders ordered the man banished, but first they cursed him. He truly is a monster within his heart, now at night he walks and becomes what once dwelled there in secret."

She was quiet after telling this and Red could not speak for several minutes, then she asked something that she was not sure she wanted the answer to.

"Where is the man now?" The old woman looked at Red and saw a most terrible sadness in her eyes. "He remains in these woods." Red felt great fear for herself, what would she do when the gypsies had to leave? "We would have killed the man if we had known anyone resided within this forest."

"You could not have known." She said softly and they did not speak of it for the rest of the night. She slept with them that night after the fire died and they kept her safe from what was lurking in the woods. In the morning Red prepared to leave the gypsies but the old woman did not want her to go. "Please travel with us – it is surely a death sentence if you go on alone!" Red hugged the woman, who squeezed her tightly. "I am sorry, I thank you for your hospitality and bid you farewell." The old woman cried many tears as they parted and Red thought her eyes would burst from so many withheld tears.


	2. Chapter 2

The woods had been transformed in Red's eyes. She saw every shadow, every flicker of light as a monster waiting to devour her. Her thoughts kept circling around the story that the Gypsy woman had told her. She began picturing the man in her mind, the monster. Red felt pinpricks along her spine. Something was following her. She began to run, began to panic, began to lose track of where she was going.

She stopped.

Red forced herself to breathe normally, to stop panicking. When she felt more calm, she took more decisive action. She put her beautiful cape into the basket and put on another that was black. She was very well hidden in the shadows of the trail and she never walked in the sunlight. The beating of her heart slowed gradually; Red felt less frightened as she went on. The sun was getting high in the sky and the heat had become less than bearable. Red decided to put down her hood for a while as she walked and this cooled her down a little. She had just stopped to take a drink from her water flask when she spotted something strange.

It was a circle of mushrooms off the trail that looked positively delicious, then she remembered something her Aunt had told her once about circles like this. "A fairy ring..." She whispered and went to it hesitantly. Red was so enraptured in the thought of seeing a real live fairy that she completely forgot to walk out of the sun. As she knelt down in the center of the circle, a beam of sunlight filtered down through the tree limbs and hit her head. The sun illuminated the area as it reflected off the shining red of her hair. Red touched her hands to the grass on each side of her and closed her eyes to pray for good luck in traveling.

Not far away, there was someone resting beside a stream. It was a man. This man had once been a hunter of rabbits and deer. But something had changed. As the sunlight gave way for afternoon twilight something would happen to him. His eyes would grow sharp and golden in color. His hands became large and powerful animal paws tipped with sharp talons. His feet elongated and lifted him higher from the ground. His back split open to form muscles and fur. And his face… He truly was a monster to behold. Half wolf and half man. This was his curse.

But just now he was a man and he had seen the beacon of light that was the sun on Red's hair. He felt the beast stir within his chest as he looked through the length of woods between them. The beast longed for her, lusted for her. He felt as Hades must have felt when looking upon Persephone for the first time. A low growl tickled his throat. The man calmed the beast, soothing it's savage spirit. He could not be taken by the thirst for blood at this moment – it was too dangerous. His coherent thoughts overcame the wilder urges. The man got to his feet smoothly, melting into the forest as though he had never been there.

Red felt something flicker in the back of her mind, a feeling of instinct. Then she had turned and seen the man that was less than two feet away from her.

She got up but backpedaled at the same time, falling halfway out of the circle of mushrooms, crushing some of them underneath her body. She scrambled out of the way and back into the shelter of a tree. She glanced at the man, pulling her hood back over her head.

He was still standing where he had been, smiling pleasantly. His hair was dark brown and he had a lanky frame. He wore only breeches, no shirt and carried no weapons that she could see. She curled further back into the shade. His eyes glinted as he looked at her, smiling slightly.

"What a lovely girl you are." Red felt all the warning flags in her head go up at once. This man was trouble. Wait, he was coming towards her. "Lovely face…lovely eyes…" he just kept coming! All she could do was press further in to the tree, until her back hit the trunk and he was right in front of her. "Lovely hair…" his eyes shined in the darkness of the shadow. He reached out and pulled strands of her hair, running it through his fingers. "It looks like golden blood." He bent his face very close to her own, his breath tickled along her neck. Red tried to breathe normally but felt her chest was likely to explode.


	3. Chapter 3

"Would you like to walk with me? We could keep each other company as we travel. It is lonely in these woods, I could teach you songs to sing." His voice was like music, each phrase lilting gently in her ear. Red felt herself softening towards him and she couldn't understand why. She barely knew him. Yet, she wanted to reach out and take his offered hand.

He reached for her hand; palm outstretched in a graceful gesture that spoke of her true intentions. He wanted to help her. Surely someone with such a face could never do the things the gypsy woman had spoken of. But as Red remembered the gypsy, her eyes swam up from the back of her mind. They were dark and stern, they told her not to fall for his tricks.

"No," she said suddenly. The word rang out clear and sharp in the silent woods. Red noticed that the birds were no longer singing, their silence told her more than she needed to know about the danger of her present situation. The man seemed startled, but only just so.

"Oh, is something wrong?"

"My Aunt told me to come straight home. I have to go now." She turned and started walking, never looking back. She never heard him call her name, either. After a while she realized that the birds were singing again and she stopped to look around.

She was almost there. Red breathed a sigh of relief, she recognized the pattern of trees now and with grateful feet stepped on to the main pathway to her Aunt's house.

But evil had not forgotten her. His eyes followed her as she swept her midnight cape across tree roots, navigating the woods with an steady control. He knew he could not trick her into submitting to him.

He would have to force her.

He did not like doing it this way. He liked to soften them up first, make them trusting and pliant at his side, then it would not be a surprise when he pulled them into his arms. And they would not struggle…at first. Their eyes were like the eyes of birds, shiny and vacant of alarm. But as he held them tighter….and tighter, as he pulled their shining hair back to better see their screaming faces…

It was glorious. He knew she would be glorious as well, she would be special. As he waited for night to fall, he followed behind her, covering up traces that she had passed this way… in case his disenchanted kinsman happened to come looking for her. He imagined what the moment would feel like when he stretched his jaws open wide. Ah, divinity was in consumption.

Night came fast on Red's heels. Just as she began to make out small pieces of her Aunt's cabin peaking between slices of forestry, the sun was disappearing from the skyline. She began running as the last of daylight left the hills, she was almost there….just a little further…

Her breath exploded out in bursts, her lungs began to burn. No, no, she thought, as the darkness became complete. No! She could feel the night's claws digging into the foot prints behind her, she imagined she could hear it's heavy breathing. There! There was the cabin; she burst from the tree line, throwing herself against the door. She banged once then threw herself inside without waiting for an answer. She collapsed to the floor, her forehead brushing the wood panels as she gulped in breath after burning breath.

Red lifted her head to say something but could only cough.

"Oh dearie, you certainly have come a long way," a rattling voice said. Red coughed again and this time found she could speak.

"Aunt Matilda?"

"Yes, darling, I'm here. Come have a drink of water, you must be parched." Red felt soft pressure on her arms, lifting her up from the floor boards. She did not fight them, feeling safe at last.

"Oh, Aunt Matilda, it was horrible. I was running in the woods because there is a wolf out there that the gypsies warned me about-"

"The gypsies?"

"Yes, they told me he was once a man, but he got cursed for doing something bad."

"Oh, what was that, dear?" Red tried to bring her fuzzy mind back to the conversation with the old woman and recalled her reluctance to speak on the subject.

"Actually, I don't know…she never said."

"It's well enough that she didn't. You wouldn't have understood anyway." Red looked up at hearing her Aunt say these words. There was no light in the cabin.

"Aunt Matilda, where is the light?"

"A young girl like you would never know the logistics of what the gypsy woman was saying. You could never understand what she meant when she spoke of _thieving the innocence_." The wolf had let down his disguise completely now. Though Red could see the outline of her Aunt in his shadowy form, his voice had become the masculine growl of predation.

Red's heart began climbing into her throat, the whites of her eyes enveloping her irises until she was blind with fear. The cabin tilted around her, tempting her to faint and let him kill her as she slept. But he was not that kind of predator and he saw the sudden fatigue that fell over her.

In one stride he was upon her. His human hand slapped her smartly across the cheek. She fell to the cabin floor again, but now fully awake. He dragged her back up again by her elbows, and then pulled her with him to the kitchen table. Red's limbs would not move to defend her. As her eyes found the sight of her Aunt's mangled clothing in the corner, she knew she was dead, and began to truly believe that she would die too.


	4. Chapter 4

Red was brought back to the moment as her back hit the table top and the cursed man hovered over her. His hands made bruises around her upper arms where he pinned her down. He bent down close to her face and spoke softly in her ear. Red began to shiver with fear.

"Do you know what I am going to do to you?" Red did not answer, her eyes pinned to the ceiling above her head. He continued. "First, I'm going to shred your clothing from your body." His hands went to the collar of her shirt, ripping it down the lacy hem until her under-bodice was showing. Then he slowly unhooked, catch by catch until only her thin cotton shift remained. He fingered the soft material, then began ripping it apart down her frame until nothing remained between his eyes and her white torso, her newly formed breasts were full and well rounded. He would start there. "Then, I'm going to take my hands and trail my fingers from your collar bone down to your belly button." He did this, his fingers never venturing to cup the soft hills that lay to either side. Red felt his burning fingers upon her tender flesh . His eyes watched her face as it changed with her reaction. First shock, then fear flitted across her eyes. He kept watching her as his hands lifted once more, this time finding the tender nipples never touched before. She gasped aloud, her mouth forming a rounded O. He watched her fear melt to sudden shameful pleasure, and he brushed his fingertips back over her nipples just to see the expression again. This time her eyes closed and tears slipped out from her smoky lashes.

The man sighed, aroused by her stress. "Now I'm ready," he said. He pulled her up from the table, her scraps of clothing falling around her feet. He pulled her to the bed, pushing her down upon the coverlet. His knees pinned her legs against the side of the bed, he remained standing, looming over her.

"Now…I'm going to put my lips on your breasts, one at a time, and I'm going to suck upon your nipples. I won't bite…until later, when they are agitated and numb from the sucking." Red pushed back against the bed, trying to slide out from beneath him, but he only pinioned her legs between his knees. "I think… the left first." He bent his head down to her chest. Red held her breath, hoping not to feel his mouth moving against her flesh. As his lips closed around her, she gasped, her back arched.

The sounds of the night grew louder until Red imagined she could hear animals shrieking as they met their final deaths, she realized the screaming was not coming from outside, but from inside her brain. She wanted so badly to scream, but her lips could only tremble and her throat had closed up tight. The monster was getting very excited, his lips moved more harshly against her flesh and she shuddered anew. He abandoned her left side for her right, and once again pulled her tender areole into his mouth, flicking his tongue against the fleshy morsel.

The beast inside wanted him to bite down hard, to tear into her flesh and taste the flowing blood, to suck the sweet marrow. But he remembered nights such as this when he had lost control and ended it too quickly, he controlled himself to draw the moment out longer, for his own enjoyment. He suddenly noticed the girl was laying much too still, and suspected she was again going to faint. He pushed his hands under her back, arching her spine to better expose her torso. She gasped as his teeth closed over her breast and began teasing her nipple. It was a sharp, solitary pain that kept her awake and straining. She began breathing in quickly, panicking, trying to pull herself away from his grip. He moaned and held her closer, seeming to enjoy her struggles beneath his body. His teeth pinched her nipple harder. Tears shined on the girls face.

When he finally lifted his head to see his work, the girl was shivering with pain. Tiny, pained sounds escaped her mouth as with every rise of her chest, the right side of her breast burned.

"Yes, that does hurt, doesn't it?" His voice was hoarse sounding, choked with desire. "We can't end it so soon yet. I haven't done the other side." He watched the tears that streamed down the girl's face and smiled widely. "This will hurt more…I promise." He continued on, again pulling the left nipple into his mouth and playing gently upon it, then as the hour wore on he set his teeth into it, grinding as he had done the other side. The girl jerked with every shift of his mouth upon her skin, her breast ablaze with agony. Finally he stopped and raised his head again.

His eyes looked down her body, where her breasts were pink with agitation. He knew the blood pooled there so deliciously, and if one of his canines nicked a mammary gland… but she was only sixteen, perhaps she was not to term. Still, he imagined the taste of the hormones mixed with the blood as a sweet cocktail flowing over his tongue and he bent down to have a taste, his canines growing sharper and longer as he did so. Red suddenly shrieked with fear. He came close to her face and whispered.

"Oh, yes, you are right. Very right indeed, I shouldn't sniff the bouquet if I can't taste the wine…yes, we'll wait for that. On to other things." Red felt his weight lift from her body momentarily. He pulled her legs up on to the bed and climbed up after her. There was a pillow in his hands, he pushed it beneath her upper thighs, position her legs open. He came close to her face again to speak.

"Well, here we are. I suppose I should warn you what is to happen next. "His fingers curled around a lock of her red hair, he pulled upon it absently as he spoke. "You see, eventually there's going to be a point when I am going to come into your body…Oh, wait. But you've never done this before," he smiled brightly, canines shining in the light. "I must explain. For me to enter your body, I must prepare yours to let me. You're going to be tight. I must make your skin….wet, so I can slide in comfortably. Yes, you will welcome me inside." His eyes glittered like beetles in the dark. Red heard the screaming in her head begin again as his hands took the material of her skirt and ripped it down the middle. The thin cotton under things she wore were gone as well, taken by his greedy hands. He stared down at her a moment, then pushed open her thighs. Red whimpered high in her throat.

He trailed his fingers along the soft auburn down that topped her maidenhood. His thumbs pressed against the outer lips, pulling them aside to rend her open before him. He breathed out slowly; the tips of his fingers were moist.

"Oh, you are not so unpracticed at this…you have touched yourself before." He said, then dipped his fingers into the folds within, stroking along the lips. His fingers dexterously found a very sensitive region, a knot of nerves that he touched lightly with his thumb. His other fingers moved to keep her open wide to him, so that he could see the dark red of her inner lips. His thumb labored over that clutch of nerves, Red's legs began trembling. Tears wet her cheeks as her body betrayed her to the wolf.

As he readied her, he spoke aloud. "Yes, they all react this way. They don't want to at first, because they didn't come to me… I came to them; I chose them to be mine. I will take you soon." Red's breathing became hitched and she struggled beneath his hands, her hips rolling to push away from him. But he was much larger than her and faster. He kept her imprisoned as he fondled her flesh; bringing her closer to the edge of completion.

But he would not let her finish. He pulled away from her flushed and panting body, bringing his face up to her own.

"Now." His knees slid up between her thigh, he parted them further. His shaft brushed the auburn curls that touched her lips. His mouth hovered over her face, waiting until the head of his penis touched her inner lips and was ready. He bent his mouth to hers and kissed her gently, his penis began sliding inside of her lips. Red moaned back in her throat. Then it became too tight, he was too big to fit inside, but still he pushed. Red raised her hands and pushed them against his chest, trying to push him away, but on he drove. Suddenly he pulled back; his harsh mouth bruised her lips as he shoved hard into her. Red cried out against his mouth as the pain overwhelmed her lower body.

He kept up the motion, his hard penis sliding into her tight body over and over. Red murmured, "No…please…no…"

"Shhh, yes…yes…" He said back, offering her virgin body no kindness as he drove into her again and again. It lasted for hours, until Red realized that it was blood that kept him lubricated as he kept going. Suddenly he bent his head down and bit into her breast with razor sharp fangs, his hands grew claws that raked down her back. As he tasted her blood, he began growling and moved faster into her. Red flopped against the bed like a limp doll. Suddenly he shoved one last time into her, squeezing her body against his own until she heard her own ribs cracking. He howled long and loud, having finished his task.

Red dropped back to the mattress, blood stained and body broken. She was breathing, albeit feebly. The man was almost all wolf now, his eyes were large and golden, his hands were sharp talons. As the moon rose outside, it shined on his pale skin, he felt the full change coming on. Tonight he would celebrate in his true skin. The gypsies would hear his howl and know he was victorious.


	5. Chapter 5

The banging on the door was furious and sudden. The wolf's head snapped to attention, a growl vibrating in his throat.

"Red! Red! If you are in there, open up!" It was the gypsies, come to save the little girl. How sweet. But they had heard him howling, surely. He smiled a toothy grin, pain promised in every glinting canine. His clawed feet scraped the floorboards as he made his way to the door. Tonight he would feast, the gypsies had proven to be annoying, he would do away with them now. Besides, these woods had become his home and he felt they were encroaching on his territory. Their children would remember this night in their nightmares.

"OPEN THE DOOR!" The voices said. He laughed, a deep rumble that started in his stomach and traveled up like bile. He bowed, mocking them through the door and reached out a clawed hand to oblige.

Suddenly a loud thud came from behind, he jerked in surprise, ears pricking. He bowed his head and began to cough. He staggered forward, revealing the head of an ax imbedded in his back. He spun, falling to his side as he lost his balance. There stood the girl, covered in her own blood, scraps of her clothing clinging to her in brown clotting strips. Her eyes were ringed in white, but she had a deadly calm about her. The hands that had wielded the ax trembled violently. The wolf glared up at her, then howled in pain, he seemed to feel….betrayed almost. He looked up at her and growled, seeming to say "Why? How could you?" Red was connected to the killer. She knew what he was saying and her answer was immediate.

"You killed me. " His eyes sharpened in understanding. He never should have chosen this girl. She reached down and pulled the ax from his back, swinging it back up again, this time watching his eyes as she brought it down on his neck, seeing the spurt of blood as it severed his head completely. His cruel eyes went flat. "I killed you."

The door crashed open; the gypsies flowed in wearing their bright colored scarves, looking almost comically out of place amidst the gore in the cabin. The first ones in stopped, shocked at the sight that greeted them. Red saw this and laughed softly once, then dropped to her knees and began sobbing.

She had killed him.


End file.
